Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been directed to settle a substantial six-figure legal debt to a firm established by a former British intelligence operative, whom he unsuccessfully sued for disseminating what his legal counsel termed as “shocking and scandalous false claims that besmirched his reputation.”

According to court documents unveiled on Thursday, a London judge, who dismissed the lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence last month on grounds of its inevitable failure, mandated Trump to cover legal expenses totaling 300,000 pounds ($382,000).

Orbis, established by Christopher Steele, a former operative of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, found itself entangled in a legal tussle initiated by Trump, notwithstanding his looming legal predicaments in the United States.

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Amid facing four criminal charges and a civil lawsuit domestically, Trump incurred a significant setback in a defamation lawsuit, where a jury held him accountable for sexual misconduct, resulting in a staggering $355 million verdict against his enterprises.

Across the Atlantic, Trump pursued an aggressive stance by suing Orbis in England.

Steele, commissioned by Democrats for investigative work, including provocative assertions suggesting Russian leverage over Trump, compiled the infamous Steele dossier in 2016, sparking a political furor before Trump’s inauguration. However, subsequent scrutiny largely discredited the dossier’s claims and rumors.

Trump’s lawsuit against Orbis alleged the dossier’s fabrication and violation of British data protection laws.

During an October hearing, Attorney Hugh Tomlinson underscored Trump’s purported ordeal, asserting that the former president endured personal and reputational harm due to allegations in the dossier, including involvement in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg and liaisons with sex workers in Moscow.

Tomlinson emphasized the dossier’s inclusion of “shocking and scandalous claims” about Trump’s conduct, alleging bribery payments to Russian officials to advance his business ventures.

Orbis countered the lawsuit, contending that the dossier was never intended for public dissemination and was published by BuzzFeed without Steele’s or Orbis’s consent. Furthermore, it argued that the lawsuit was time-barred.

Judge Karen Steyn, aligning with Orbis in her ruling on February 1, subsequently issued an order regarding legal costs. She reduced Orbis’s claimed legal expenses, initially totaling 634,000 pounds ($809,000), by over 50%, deeming it excessive for a single-day hearing.

In 2022, a U.S. federal judge in Florida dismissed a lawsuit by Trump against Steele, his 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, and former senior FBI officials, rejecting Trump’s assertions that they colluded to instigate the Russia investigation that overshadowed a significant portion of his presidency.